Chemical Technology August 2015

South African solution for the energy crisis

fuel cycle produces plutonium in its waste which can be used to make a bomb. The thorium fuel cycle produces mainly fission products in its waste which cannot be used to make a bomb. The use of thorium does not completely eliminate proliferation risk, as thorium transmutes into U233 in the reactor, but this fissile isotope remains mainly in the reactor as fuel and not in the waste. STL’s strategy to make nuclear power sustainable is to use a resource that is plentiful in nature and to use it efficiently so that there is little waste and is safe. There are large thorium resources in the world. Effective and safe fuel, and reactor designs, can achieve high burn ups that ex- tract most of the energy from this resource. Thorium, used efficiently, could provide clean, safe energy for thousands of years. For more information contact the writer, Trevor Blench, chairman of Steenkampskraal Thorium Ltd, on tel: +27 12 658 5254, email:trevor.blench@thorium100.com or visit www.thorium100.com z

The world needs energy to support eco- nomic growth and to raise living standards. The world’s demand for energy could double over the next 50 years. However, we should not double energy production by doubling the burning of fossil fuels. The burning of fossil fuels, especially coal, causes atmo- spheric pollution and millions of deaths each year as well as global warming, climate change and environmental degradation. It is an immense challenge to double en- ergy production while reducing the burning of fossil fuels. We believe that all renewable sources of energy should be developed and that nuclear power can help to increase energy production and replace fossil fuels. The purpose of Steenkampskraal Tho- rium Limited (STL), a South African-based company, is to make nuclear power clean, safe and sustainable. The company’s strategy to make nuclear power clean is to introduce thorium as a fuel with vast resources in the Western Cape at the Steenkampskraal mine. Nuclear power is considered 'dirty' mainly because the waste from the uranium fuel cycle remains radioactive for many thousands of years. By contrast, the waste from the thorium fuel cycle will substantially reduce the problem of nuclear waste. STL has invested in Thor Energy AS in Norway, a company that has manufactured thorium fuel and is now qualifying this fuel for use in commercial safe reactors. This fuel was inserted into the Halden reactor in Norway in April 2013 and has now been generating power for more than two years. It is performing well and could be licensed for commercial use by 2018 once regulatory approval is given. STL is also designing a refinery to produce reactor-grade thorium for the future manufacture of thorium fuel. STL’s strategy to make nuclear power safe is to introduce fuel and reactor designs that are intrinsically safe and meltdown–

proof. In line with this, STL has designed a factory to make pebble fuel that contains TRISO-coated particles. This fuel has been tested and has demonstrated its safety on many occasions. TRISO-coated particles housed in graphite pebbles do not melt, release practically no fission products and is an extremely safe container for the active fuel while it is in the reactor and later for the storage of the spent fuel after it has been removed from the reactor. STL is also designing a high-tempera- ture, gas-cooled, pebble-bed reactor, the HTMR100. This type of reactor has been designed, licensed, built and operated over many years in Germany and China. High-temperature reactors (HTRs) have demonstrated their intrinsic safety on several occasions, under the observation of the International Atomic Energy Agency. HTRs have demonstrated that they do not melt-down when the coolant stops circulat- ing through the fuel, which was the case with the disastrous Fukushima meltdown. Safety also relates to the risk of the pro- liferation of nuclear weapons. The uranium

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Chemical Technology • August 2015